You could fail a roadside drug test if you are impaired with theses common painkillers
You could fail a roadside drug test if you are impaired with theses common painkillers
If you take medications such as Feminax or Solpadeine regularly, you could fail a roadside drugs test if the Gardaí find that you are impaired in your driving.You may need to be aware that both these drugs contain codeine, which is a drug detected by Gardaí during roadside drug tests.
Experts say that you could even be over the limit if you have taken the recommended dosage?
Dr Mark Murphy, chair of communications for the Irish College of General Practitioners reported in the papers that:
"Care must be taken to ensure people are not incorrectly deemed to be unfit to drive, particularly older members of society.
“Our concern is over opiates and benzodiazepines which are two groups of drugs that will result in a positive test result.
“About 4pc of the population are on long-term use of opiates such as Solpadeine for chronic pain and they can tolerate it and do not feel it impairs them."
As with any medications, it is advised that you speak with your GP or Pharmacist for more advice and also be aware of the new legislation regarding drug impairment and driving.
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